1. On February 25, 1870, the Mississippi Legislature ratified the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which granted African American men the right to vote.
2. In 1947, Mississippi State College (now Mississippi State University) defeated the University of Mississippi 49-0 in the first football game between the two schools in almost 20 years. The rivalry between the two schools, known as the Egg Bowl, has continued to this day.
3. Civil rights leader and Mississippi native Medgar Evers was born on February 25, 1925. Evers played a key role in desegregating schools and public places in Mississippi, and was assassinated by a white supremacist in 1963.
4. On February 25, 1871, Hiram Revels was sworn in as the first African American member of the United States Senate. Revels was elected by the Mississippi Legislature to fill the seat left vacant by Jefferson Davis, who had resigned to become President of the Confederacy.
5. In 1964, the Freedom Democratic Party, an integrated group led by Mississippi civil rights activists, held a rally in Jackson. The group was challenging the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party, which refused to allow African Americans to participate in its conventions. The rally drew over 10,000 people, and helped to bring attention to the civil rights struggle in Mississippi.